Europe 2004 Day 12

Well, I suppose every holiday must come to an end eventually. Although I had a thoroughly enjoyable time, I am certainly ready to go back home. I started the day early as Brent woke me up on his way out to work. I got ready, packed all my things, not so neatly this time, and headed out the same way I arrived, in reverse. At the airport I managed to find my way around (I found Gatwick to be supremely confusing in its layout), had some breakfast at the airport pub (a "bloomer" sandwich... More like a "heart attack" sandwich!) and eventually got on the plane. Not as good of a seat this time, but a window seat, which I actually prefer to an aisle. As we flew over Britain and Ireland I did get to see some of the countryside through the clouds.

We landed early in a cold & snowy Minneapolis, and made our way through Customs & Immigration. I didn't have any problems getting through, and since I had carried on everything, I zipped through quite quickly. I found it odd and annoying that we had to go through security again, but I had three hours to kill in the airport this time, so I had a bit to eat, then headed down to the gate and read while waiting.

There was a gentleman chatting with the gate agents as the plane was beginning to board who looked an awful lot like Senator John McCain. I don't know why a senator from Arizona would be flying from Minneapolis to Portland, though. Particularly in January. We had to be de-iced before taking off, a first for me! The flight was okay, the overheads were the tightest yet so I almost had to check my bag. The service wasn't as great as the other flights had been, but the older fellow sitting next to me was kind of nerdy, like me, so we had fun chatting about the airport approaches and stuff. We arrived at PDX a bit late, but I was just happy to be home after such a long day.

January 26, 2004 11:59 PM